The Moto Wanderer: Berry's SEAJ trip Day 70: Road-tripping to Nara (8/14/15)

Get in the van to go get Ashley before heading out towards Nara. Go through some mountains which provided some amazing views of the Japanese countryside and some of the fields of rice had grains growing so I was starting to see the golden color people were talking about earlier in the trip when I was exploring the rice patties of Vietnam.

Some of the rice fields. Shows the difference in color within just this pic. Really is stunning the color the rice turns into as it matures.

So we stop at one of the rest stop and there is a roller coaster. Berry wants to ride but we got places to be.

Some pretty serious lanterns. Intricate and awesome if I say so.

Still daylight. Berry wants to wait here for the sun to go down. He will see there are plenty to see as the sun goes down.

Large lanterns at the entrance of the park area.

Berry glad to have finally got here and be among the lanterns.

Cool being able to walk among the lantern paths and see how it changes as the sun goes down.

We are in line to explore the lantern temple. Great timing as sunset is almost done.

Sun setting. Cool contrast.

Seems every lantern is different. Wonder who makes these.

Nice that they light the path for you.

More LANTERNS!!!!! YES!

There was a group holding a concert of classical music in the lantern building. Was nice to stroll around and be able to listen to some good music while taking in the amazing lanterns.

Top of the building in the lantern hall.

Some different lantern designs.

Beautiful lanterns!

Long exposure as we get through the hall of lanterns with the masses.

Palm tree?

Berry posing as we chill with the lantern bags where people would move them to make different shapes. Not sure if they were supposed to be doing that

Little panoramic pic of lanterns. Doesnt do the area justice.

So there are even more lanterns. Where do they all come from?

Walking through the lights to take a shortcut across the grass.

Berry likes the look of this entry gate.

Berry staring down fearful warrior dude cause he is trapped in his cage.

Lights lights everywhere.

I wonder if lanterns outnumbered the number of people on these grounds.

They do different colored lanterns too.

Long exposure. Thought it was a good look for this building.

The wall lit up with the lake outline also lit up.

The building that contains the big Buddha surrounded by hordes of people.

Buddha gets his own lil viewing window.

Stopped and took a picture of this cool lantern before going in to see the giant Buddha.

Buddha looks so at peace in his statues.

Berry with one of his buddies, Buddhas.

Berry was looking at how steep those steps were then he realized the creepy warrior staring him down.

Model of the temple grounds.

Lights lighting the path as we head out of there. Stunning.

Berry posing next to one of the lil lights.

Got to Nara and got on the bus to check out the lantern festival after checking into our hotel (???). Get there and there are thousands of lanterns of varying sizes throughout the grounds lit up (I wonder how many people it took and how long it took them to light all of them) which is incredibly beautiful both with the historical lanterns and the small paper bag ones arranged in varying patterns in the yard. See the temples in the park which are all lit up before heading over to a different temple complex which has an extremely large Buddha peaking out of an opening in the main building. As we walk around I also notice that deer are very present in this park as well and people are feeding them. After the festival we walk to an Italian restaurant that Dave and Tammy have been to before for dinner and it is pretty good Italian food. On the walk back to the hotel, we stop in and do an hour of karaoke with bottomless drinks in the nearby arcade. Once we are done singing our hearts out, we head back to the hotel to chill in the onsen for a bit before bed.